Portland Free Philosophy Lectures and Discussions

February 1 - We will read chapter 6. The previous chapters read were about (1) common beliefs about friendship, (2) the object of love and friendship, (3) three corresponding kinds of friendship, (4) distinguishing the best from the inferior kinds, and (5) the state of friendship vs. its activity. Chapter 6 will be on further distinctions about forms of friendship, including the erotic ones. (E.g., can you have more than one at once?)
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Our main translation from here on will be by Adam Beresford (Penguin Classics, 2020), but we will occasionally dip into other older English translations to get more insights and commentaries.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book VIII–IX, which is about friendship, social relations, and love.
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The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
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1. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire any of it? (E.g. pride, ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, fairness, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. How does one formulate right desires?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.

Learn more about Premise. We offer guided conversations about life's big questions

🟡 Space is limited, register today!

Please register directly with Premise here:
https://www.premiseinstitute.com/event-details/how-do-other-peoples-expectations-shape-who-we-become-2

It helps us keep things organized, since participants join from multiple places.

👉 Use the code `portlandmeetup` if you are unable to pay. The session will be no cost. All registration fees go directly to expanding Premise to communities nationwide.

Texts:
We will email you the reading after you register.

• George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”

⏱️ Preparation: Less than 45 min.

### Session Description

How Do Other People’s Expectations Shape Who We Become?

We like to believe we act from our own values—that our choices reflect who we truly are. But in real life, we’re constantly being watched, evaluated, relied on, and quietly pressured. Expectations can be explicit (“Be responsible,” “Be strong,” “Don’t disappoint us”) or invisible and ambient, like the unspoken rules of a room we can feel in our bodies the second we walk in.

In this session, we’ll use George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” to explore what happens when identity gets shaped from the outside in—by the crowd, by role, by reputation, by power, by fear of humiliation.

Orwell’s essay is a sharp portrait of how quickly we can become the person others assume we are, even when it violates our inner sense of what’s right.

This reading creates productive friction for conversation: freedom versus performance, integrity versus belonging, and private selfhood versus public identity. It asks whether we can genuinely choose in a world full of social consequence—or whether, in certain moments, we are all living inside someone else’s story about who we’re supposed to be.
In this session, we will ask:

• When do we act from conviction, and when do we act to avoid judgment or shame?
• How do other people’s expectations shape not just what we do, but who we think we are?
• What’s the difference between leadership and performance? Between responsibility and compliance?
• If fear of disappointing others is driving us, how do we reclaim agency without opting out of community?

### What Premise is like?

Join us in a welcoming, guided conversation space that invites people from all walks of life to think in public together with curiosity, openness, and respect. You do not need academic credentials or philosophical background. All you need is a willingness to read thoughtfully and reflect honestly.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
To be the speaking participant you must RSVP via Calendly.
The link to my Calendly calendar is available in my Egora profile:
http://egora-ilp.org/philosopher/Cezary_Jurewicz

All others are welcome to join to listen, use the chat, use the breakout rooms, and comment at the end.

About Citizen Office Hours:
If the Citizen is to be the highest authority in democracy, should we not have office hours to make ourselves available and accountable to our fellow citizens? The answer is YES – yes, we should.

Also, in democracy, there is no power without responsibility. If the citizens do not accept the responsibility of being citizens, then we do not really have any power – the power we might think we have is illusory. Therefore, all responsible citizens should make themselves available at their own "Citizen Office Hours" to build our democratic power through collaboration.

This event is a publication of my Citizen Office Hours. I am making myself available to discuss any of my or your ideas published in Egora. Egora is a platform for efficiently developing and effectively sharing our political philosophies with each other. Please be already registered for Egora before our meeting and at least somewhat familiar with my Ideological Profile so we can have a proper and thorough discussion. If you share your Ideological Profile in the comments in advance, i will take some time to study it before our meeting (ideally, the audience will do so too). Here is the link to my profile again:
http://egora-ilp.org/philosopher/Cezary_Jurewicz